Parul Chaudhary missed the targeted Olympic Games qualifying mark but improved her personal best by five seconds on Wednesday to surprise herself, more than anyone else, with a place in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase final in the World Athletics Championships in the National Athletic Centre in Budapest.
She ran a smart race to finish fifth in her heats in 9:24.29, a time that makes her the second fastest woman Steeplechaser in India behind Lalita Babar. “I am not thinking of the National Record (9:19.76) but I have dreamt competing in the Olympic Games and want to get that qualifying mark in the final on Sunday.”
On a balmy evening when news of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Mission Vikram rover landing on the moon filled every Indian heart with pride, Parul Chaudhary emulated Long Jumper Jeswin Aldrin by getting a place in the final. They became the first Indians to achieve this in the World Championships in Budapest after the squad had a drawn a blank over the first four days.
“I was aiming to secure Olympic qualification by clocking 9:23. Though I am glad I got my
personal best this evening, I will try and go faster in the final on Sunday,” she said, freely admitting that she had not imagined getting a berth in the final. “I knew that there were quite a few runners with better times than me and I was only seeking to run fast and get a ticket to the Olympics.”
With a third of the race left, Parul Chaudhary overtook United States of America’s 2017 World Champion Emma Coburn and realised that she was in with a chance of finishing among the top five and run in the final. “When I passed her, I sensed that I could qualify for Sunday’s race and finish inside 9:23 but I think I ran the final lap a bit slower than I would have liked,” she said.
She said she made the most of Avinash Sable’s advice to not change lanes and to focus on clearing the hurdles well. “I will treat this race as part of the work out and run the final better, though it is the first time that I will run two Steeplechase races in one competition,” Parul Chaudhary said. To be sure, she did not face the kind of traffic that Sable did in his race a few days ago
She becomes only the second Indian woman Steeplechaser to figure in the final of the World Championships after Lalita Babar in 2015. Parul Chauhdary’s maiden World Championships experience ended early in Eugene last year. But now she has drawn the benefit of a good training in Colorado Springs and become a better Steeplechaser.
After a riveting women’s Pole Vault competition, Australia’s Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon (United States of America) both picked up gold medals for clearing 4.90m. Neither of them succeeded in clearing the bar at 4.95m and shared the top place since both had needed three attempts at 4.90m and had courted one failure each before that.
For Katie Moon, it was her second successive gold but she was made to work real hard to earn this one by Nina Kennedy who had never jumped higher than 4.82m in a competition. The two of them kept pushing one another hard after Finland’s Wilma Murto and Slovenia’s Tina Sutej bowed out of competition after clearing 4.80m.
Josh Kerr inflicted a defeat on Norway’s Jakob Ingerbrigtsen with a superbly timed kick on the as the leaders approached the final straight. It was the second successive time in a World Championships final that a Briton was beating the World Record holder. Josh Kerr’s Edinburgh Athletics Club team-mate Jake Whitman had driven the Norwegian to silver in Eugene last year.
Ingerbrigtsen’s compatriot, 400m Hurdles ace, Karsten Warholm avoided a repeat of a heartbreak. Having finished a poor seventh in the last World Championships in Eugene, the world record holding Norwegian was on top of his game. He let Ivory Coast’s Kyron McMaster and United States of America’s Rai Benjamin set the early pace before he accelerated on the back straight.
By the time he was done with the second curve and entered the home straight, Warholm was in control of the race, leaving the others to fight for the minor medals. The defending champion Allison Dos Santos (Brazil) had drawn the outside lane and was unable to present a challenge to the trio and even lost his fourth place to Jamaican Roshawn Clarke.
In the other women’s final on Wednesday night, one in which many fans missed the familiar Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino ran a well-paced 400m final to win gold in 48.76 seconds. She had finished second to the American in Eugene and was not about to give up the chance to claim the top place on the podium.
From an Indian standpoint, Ram Baboo will compete in the men’s 35km Race Walk on Thursday morning before the attention turns to Jeswin Aldrin in the Long Jump final late in the evening. Ram Baboo enjoys a world ranking of 20th but will be hard pressed to challenge the world’s best walkers in the 2km circuit stretching from the iconic Heroes Square.
It will be of interest to see the mindset Jeswin Aldrin walks to the Long Jump runway with. If he can focus on his own jumps and not be taken in by what the other contestants achieve, the 21-year-old can be a top 8 finisher. The final will be his chance to show that he can produce his best on the biggest stage, not flustered by the reputations of the top guns but by drawing from them.
The results (finals, and Indian in qualifying):
Men
1500m: 1. Josh Kerr (Great Britain) 3:29.38; 2. Jakob Ingbrigtsen (Norway) 3:29.65; 3. Narve Gilje Nordas (Norway) 3:29.68.
400m Hurdles: 1. Karsten Warholm 46.89 seconds; 2. Kyron McMaster (Ivory Coast) 47.34; 3. Rai Benjamin (United States of America) 48.07.
Women
400m: 1. Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) 48.76 seconds; 2. Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland) 49.57; 3. Sada Williams (Barbados) 49.60.
3000m Steeplechase: 16. Parul Chaudhary 9:24.29 (fifth in her heats)
Pole Vault: 1. Nina Kennedy (Australia) and Katie Moon (United States of America) 4.90; 3. Wilma Murto (Finland) 4.80.